Hmmmm, I made $18.8 thousand last year while
– the top 10 Corporate CEOs made $308 million
– the top 10 Hollywood actors made $393 million
– the top 10 sports figures made $431 million
– the top 10 TV talk show hosts made $568 million
– the top 10 music acts made $719 million
– the top 10 dead people made $849 million
– the top 10 hedge fund managers made $18.725 BILLION
If you add what the CEOs, the actors, the talk show hosts, the sports figures, the dead people, and the musicians make all together, it totals about 1/6th of what the hedge fund people plundered all by their lonesome.
No way of knowing how much the top ten politicians took because they hide what they steal way too well.
Me — I live on hundreds, dream of hundreds of thousands, would be ecstatic with millions, cannot fathom billions, yet live in a country that is $12.7 trillion in debt.
At least the actors give some entertainment back for our buck, but the CEOs and the Hedge Fund managers just basically steal.
Still, I’d have to label the politicians the biggest thieves because they steal more than just our money – they steal our hope, our spirit, our sense of justice, our dreams, our future, our lives, our young.
TOP-10 CEO EARNINGS for 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $84.5 million – Larry Ellison – Oracle
02 – $33.4 million – Ray Elliott – Boston Scientific
03 – $31.4 million – Ray Irani – occidental Petroleum
04 – $24.2 million – Mark Hurd – Hewlett-Packard
05 – $23.5 million – James Hackett – Anadarko Petroleum
06 – $23.5 million – A. G. Lafley – Procter & Gamble
07 – $22.8 million – William Weldon – Johnson & Johnson
08 – $21.9 million – Miles White – Abbott Laboratories
09 – $21.6 million – Bob Iger – Walt Disney
10 – $21.2 million – Samuel Palmisano – IBM
TOP-10 ACTOR EARNINGS FOR 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $65 million – Harrison Ford
02 – $55 million – Adam Sandler
03 – $45 million – Will Smith
04 – $40 million – Eddy Murphy
05 – $40 million – Nicolas Cage
06 – $35 million – Tom Hanks
07 – $30 million – Tom Cruise
08 – $28 million – Jim Carrey
09 – $28 million – Brad Pitt
10 – $27 million – Johnny Depp
TOP-10 SPORTS FIGURES EARNINGS FOR 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $112 million – Tiger Woods – golf
02 – $55 million – Oscar De La Hoya – boxing
03 – $51 million – Phil Mickelson – golf
04 – $35 million – Shaquille O’Neal – basketball
05 – $34 million – Kobe Bryant – basketball
06 – $31 million – LeBron James – basketball
07 – $29 million – Kevin Garnett – basketball
08 – $29 million – Derek Jeter – baseball
09 – $28 million – Alex Rodriguez – baseball
10 – $27 million – Dale Earnhardt Jr – auto racing
TOP-10 TV TALK SHOW HOST EARNINGS 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $275 million – Oprah Winfrey
02 – $80 million – Dr. Phil
03 – $45 million – David Letterman
04 – $35 million – Ellen DeGeneres
05 – $32 million – Jay Leno
06 – $30 million – Tyra Banks
07 – $27 million – Regis Philbin
08 – $15 million – Rachel Ray
09 – $15 million – Conan O’Brien
10 – $14 million – Jon Stewart
TOP-10 MUSICIAN EARNINGS 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $110 million – Madonna
02 – $100 million – Celine Dion
03 – $87 million – Beyonce
04 – $70 million – Bruce Springsteen
05 – $65 million – Kenny Chesney
06 – $60 million – Rascal Flatts
07 – $60 million – Coldplay
08 – $60 million – AC/DC
09 – $55 million – Eagles
10 – $52 million – Toby Keith
TOP-10 DEAD PEOPLE EARNINGS 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $350 million – Yves Saint Laurent
02 – $235 million – Rodgers & Hammerstein
03 – $90 million – Michael Jackson
04 – $55 million – Elvis Presley
05 – $50 million – JRR Tolkien
06 – $35 million – Charles Schulz
08 – $15 million – Dr Seuss
09 – $10 million – Albert Einstein
10 – $9 million – Michael Crichton
TOP-10 HEDGE FUND MANAGER EARNINGS FOR 2009
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
01 – $4.0 billion – David Tepper – Appaloosa Management
02 – $3.3 billion – George Soros – Soros Fund Management
03 – $2.5 billion – James Simons – Renaissance Technologies
04 – $2.3 billion – John Paulson – Paulson & Co.
05 – $1.4 billion – Steve Cohen – SAC Capital Advisors
06 – $1.3 billion – Carl Icahn – Icahn Capital
07 – $1.3 billion – Edward Lampert – ESL Investments
08 – $900 million – Kenneth Griffin – Citadel Investment Group
09 – $900 million – John Arnold – Centaurus Advisors
10 – $825 million – Philip Falcone – Harbinger Capital Partners
(much of this data comes from Forbes.com)
Here are two videos of Lady K reading last January at the Lix & Kix 12-hour Snoetry Poetry Festival in North East, Pennsylvania (I loved the name of the town because North East Pennsylvania lies in the North West corner of Pennsylvania).
In the first video, Lady reads two excerpts from our as-yet unpublished memoir of my life: CRIMINAL – A True Tale of Armed Robbery, Stolen Cars, Alternative Art, Mainstream Poetry, Underground Publishing, Robbing The Cradle, and Leaving the Country. Her first excerpt is the story of me rolling my car in my own driveway back in 1977 while on too much codeine, and the second is what it is like to overdose — library.crisischronicles.com/2010/04/03/autosaved-40053-am.aspx
The second video is Lady K reading her long poem The Swim. library.crisischronicles.com/2010/04/01/lady-k-reads-the-swim-at-snoetry-a-winter-wordfest–1162010.aspx
Lady has 13 more entries in the library, available at library.crisischronicles.com/categories/Lady K.aspx, while the complete Crisis Chronicles Online Library is accessible at library.crisischronicles.com/
See and hear these special readings by my special Lady.
If this is Happy Easter, when’s Happy Wester? Happy Norther? Souther? Why does the East get to be especially honored? Probably because that’s where the sun/son rises and the night’s dark hold is broken by the blessing of the new Eastern light.
This being Resurrection Day when Jesus rose from his grave after three days dead (just as the Phrygian deity Attis, the Egyptian deity Osiris, the Greek deity Adonis, and the Persian deity Mithras did before him), I’ve decided to call forth the religious oriented headlines I’ve culled from the news these past three months.
These headline harvests weigh me down after a while because there are so many of them; they are way beyond bizarre and frequently downright scary, miserable and negative; are literally never ending; and seem to be getting nastier, more frequent.
Once again this list starts off enigmatic, odd, philosophical, surreal; goes seriously downhill for a while; then ends in sweet silliness to ease the distaste.
~ ~ ~
Which Is Real, The Moon Or God?
New Proof Unknown “Structures” Tug at Our Universe
Can Science Explain Heaven?
Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow
Billboard of Joseph and Mary in bed – obscene or illuminating?
Would You Outsource Your Womb?
New Beer Named ‘Fucking Hell’ To Go On Sale In Europe
Good Friday: God, Forsaken
Easter Bunny Roughed Up Outside Sweet Shop
There’s plenty of room for all God’s creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes
Catholic Priest Arrested: Accused Of Stealing Butter, Sofa Cover
Man Stole From Church To Buy Sox, Bears Tickets
Discrepancies don’t shake Christians’ faith in the Bible
TV Psychic To Be Beheaded For Witchcraft Gets Temporary Reprieve
God Is Dead: Long Live Morality
Religious Versus Spiritual?
Why Conservative Christians So Often Fail the Common Good
Teacher Sued For Bashing Christianity — Will Others Be Censored?
Do You Only Live Once? Science Suggests Life Not One-Time Deal
Jesus DUMPS Madonna
Witchcraft is the most benign of all the silly religions
Yes We Scan! Priest Tracks Mass Attendance With Fingerprint Machine
Secret Bible Codes About Jesus Found On Military Rifle Sights
Marine Corps Concerned About ‘Jesus Guns’
Does Death Exist?: Life Is Forever, Says Theory
Can The Mind Exist Without The Brain?
Bishop Bob’ Offers Salvation Over Facebook
Sooner Than You Think: Biblical Scholar Claims Discovery Of The Date Of The Rapture
Man Could Face Jail Time For Taking Daughter To Church
Porn For Bibles At Texas College
Gay Porn Found On Computer Of Embattled Christian School Principal
Archbishop: Catholic Schools Shouldn’t Teach Anyone Who Disagrees With Church
Catholic Leader Who Covered Up Decades Of Serial Rape Won’t Resign
The Great Catholic Cover-Up – The pope’s entire career has the stench of evil about it
Pope Implicated in Sex Abuse Scandal
Pope accused of failing to act on sex abuse case
Ratzinger Kept Apprised Of Molester Priest, Led Transfer Meeting
Can the Pope Get Fired?
Could The Pope Be Impeached?
Time For A Female Pope
A Nope for Pope
The Pope’s Actions Are Indefensible. It’s Time To Bring Him to Justice
1963 Letter Shows Former Pope Knew Of Abuse
Ratzinger Ignored Bishop’s Plea To Help Defrock Priest Over Sex Abuse
This ‘Blame The Gays’ Defense Of The Vatican Basically Makes No Sense At All
Boy Scout Leader Blames Negligent Parents For Sex Abuse
Pope’s Preacher Compares Abuse Accusations To ‘Anti-Semitism’
Catholic Church Wants ‘Wiggle Room’ For Rape, Torture
Why Are Pedophilia-Hiding, Child-Abusing Church Fathers Allowed to Write Laws About Women’s Bodies?
More Evidence Emerges That Pope Helped Shield Pedophiles Before He Became Pope
How Does God Respond To Corruption And Violence?
Sri Lanka Author Arrested For ‘Offending Buddhists’
Why ‘Life Had To Have Been Designed’ Is a Terrible Justification for God’s Existence
Miss California Contestant: Bible Is ‘Black And White’ About Killing Homosexuals
Five Defendants Accused Of Defying God, A Charge Punishable By Death
Pope To Priests: We Must Blog NOW
Georgia Couple Arrested For Tattooing Crosses On Children
Elton John: I think Jesus was gay
Hilarious Christian Aerobics Have You Lose The Weight, Find God!
Study: Watching Do-Gooders Makes You Want To Do Good
Pot hidden in Jesus pictures
Big Butter Jesus Dominates Google, Arteries
Looked at my cell fone while food shopping to see what time it was and thought I had a text message which I couldn’t find, so looked through history. Found my last message was from my friend Wilcox a month ago. Thought “I should call him” and deleted history.
Come home, hour later fone rings. Pick it up, it’s Wilcox. I say “Hi Wilcox.”
He says, “Smith, glad you called, I was just going to call you.”
“You did call me. My fone just rang and the screen said Wilcox.”
“Well my fone was in my pocket, it rang, and my screen said Smith.”
So, we were both called by the other, and we both answered each other, yet neither of us called the other.
What am I missing in this equation?
The wait-2-hours-and-car-will-start rule has been voided. I drove Lady K to work yesterday morning, came back, turned car off. Three hours later car wouldn’t start, so I couldn’t pick her back up.
I let it sit overnight and it started this morning, so this means we can use it at least once a day.
Our first hint of trouble was 6 months ago when the car wouldn’t start after we filled it with gas at a service station; we pushed it to the side, waited five minutes and it started. Two weeks later same thing happened at a thrift store.
In our first day of continuous trouble two days ago, a 30 minute wait and pushing it backwards would start the car.
Our second day of trouble, the 30 minutes jumped to 120 minutes.
Our third day of trouble finds the two hours of downtime ballooning to 24 (although we don’t know for sure because I didn’t test start it between the three hour failure and the 24 hour successful start).
Wonder what tomorrow will bring.
I just hope in 5-6 days we can get the car over to the repair shop seven blocks away.
One of my great feelings of freedom came when I got rid of my pickup truck back in 2006 so we could move out of the country. For almost three years we lived outside the U.S. and walked everywhere we went.
When we moved back here 13 months ago and got a car, I was amazed at how stressful and dangerous driving in the states was – folk go at least 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, change lanes without looking while talking on cell fones, think that beeping their horns allows them to go through red lights, and generally think they have all the road rights and everyone else have none.
I also cannot believe what we’ve put into a 15 year old car with 185,000 miles on it – four new tires, a new clutch, a new fender and hood (my fault for bad driving), and another $500-$1,000 in general tune-up fix-up repairs.
Lady K is shocked by this because she’s never had a used car, while I’ve never had a new car and have spent my life being frigged and fractured by used losers.
I always thought my used car miseries were the karmic result of the 13 cars I stole as a 14 year-old, except I’ve already suffered way more than 13 used-car losses of my own in life.
Latest versical in The Ballad of the Startless Car.
The 30-minute-wait-then-push-backward-to-start-car rule no longer works. Now it’s wait two hours.
Once you wait two hours, you can start the car; in fact you can start the car as often as you want — turn it on and off and on and off — as long as you don’t go anywhere. Once you go somewhere and turn it off, you have to wait two hours before you can go again.
So we go to the store, send one person in while the other person waits in running car, go home, turn car off, wait two hours, go somewhere else again — always of course hoping nothing stalls the car en route, in which case we’re trapped wherever it dies.
Anyway that’s today’s rule. Wonder what tomorrow’s ritual will be.
Saw our car mechanic. He thinks it could be the solenoid but can’t get to it for a week.
So we’ll live in ever-hopeful car-loops for the next seven days.
